The first-instance trial will be held by the Hanoi People’s Court.
Hoang, born in 1953, and Phan Chi Dung, bornin 1957 and the former Director of the Light Industry Department at the Ministryof Industry and Trade (MoIT), faced a charge of “violating regulationson the management and use of State assets, causing losses and wastefulness”.
The eight other defendants, who are former HCM City officials, including Nguyen Huu Tin, born in 1957 and the former Vice Chairman of the municipalPeople’s Committee, were accused of “violating regulations on land management”.
According to the indictment from the Supreme People’s Procuracy, theSaigon Beer - Alcohol - Beverage JSC (Sabeco), which is under the MoIT’smanagement, was given more than 6,000 sq.m in downtown HCM City for productionand business purposes.
However, Hoang, former Deputy Minister Ho Thi Kim Thoa, and Dung directedsubordinates at the ministry and Sabeco to carry out procedures for using landuse rights and Sabeco's money as capital contributions to set up Sabeco Pearl, a jointventure between the firm and a number of private enterprises, to implement a project building a hotel, atrade and convention centre, and office space for lease on the land.
After Sabeco completed legal procedures for the joint venture’s investmentand proposed the HCM City People’s Committee approve the addition of officeteland housing functions to this project, the MoIT ordered the company to transfer all of Sabeco's stake in this project to the private enterprises in the joint venture.
This was illegal and resulted in the State incurring a loss of over2.713 trillion VND (118 million USD), according to the indictment.
Another of the accused, Ho Thi Kim Thoa, has fled, and the investigationpolice agency has put her on the wanted list./.